1231025 - [UX] Text twitching when editing URL due to the current Identity Block design

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Site Identity, defect)

Description

[arni2033]

Attachment: testcase 1 (flash, mixed_content, tracking_protection) - text twitching in urlbar.html

>>>   My Info:   Win7_64, Nightly 45, 32bit, ID 20151206030448

[1] - Doorhanger
STR:
1. Open https://mail.ru/
2. Click text in urlbar to select it
3. Type "a"

Result:   Doorhanger icon disappears and text twitches to the left.


[2] - Identity labels
STR:
1. Open https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/
2. Click text in urlbar to select it
3. Type "a"

Result:   identity-icon-labels disappear and text twitches to the left.


[3] - "Switch to tab" label
STR:
1. Open url   "data:text/html,<title>unique20151207224723"   (without quotes) in a new tab
2. Open new tab
3. Type there "unique20151207224723" without quotes
4. Press Down key to select the item "Switch to tab" from urlbar suggestions
5. Make sure that cursor is placed in the end of the text. Otherwise press End key.
6. Hold Shift key (don't release it until Step 8)
7. Press Left key to select the word "unique20151207224723"
8. Release Shift key, then Ctrl key
9. Type "test" to get "data:text/html,<title>test"

Result:   After Step 4 "Switch to tab" appears    and text in urlbar twitches to the Right
          After Step 6 "Switch to tab" disappears and text in urlbar twitches to the Left
          After Step 8 "Switch to tab" appears    and text in urlbar twitches to the Right
          After Step 9 "Switch to tab" disappears and text in urlbar twitches to the Left

Note that I often perform this natural STR to (e.g.) edit number of bug in bugzilla url


[4] - Notifications
STR:
1. Open "testcase 1"
2. Click text in urlbar to select it
3. Start typing "abcd..." in urlbar before plugin notification appears (you've got 4 seconds)
4. Continue typing until plugin notification appears in urlbar

Result:   Plugin notification appears in urlbar and text twitches to the right


[5] - Tracking protection
STR:
1. Save "testcase 1" locally and open the local .html file in private tab
2. Click text in urlbar to select it
3. Type "a" in urlbar before plugin notification appears (you've got 4 seconds)
4. When plugin notification will appear, press Escape twice to cancel urlbar input

Result:   Tracking protection icon appears in urlbar and text twitches to the right


[6] - Overall distracting behavior
STR:
1. Open https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/
2. Type "http://example.com/" in urlbar, then press Enter to load the site
3. Press Alt+Left

Result:   forward button, identity icons, identity labels appear at once, and the text twitches
          they are very distracting+annoying even if I don't look at the text in urlbar


[7] - Forward button
This case will be actual once bug 1199934 is resolved.


Expectations: Text in urlbar should stay still.

Comment 1

[arni2033]

"[1] - Doorhanger" was regressed recently: between 2015-11-12 and 2015-11-13 by bug 1206244
> pushlog_url:   https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/pushloghtml?fromchange=cd88c2150e1ee4574e78ce1199911ed9a16f366a&tochange=a4ce197dfecef223c0e9f84ab3bc1fc27c5cf0cb

Comment 2

[arni2033]

I listed all bugs that regressed this in "User story"

Comment 3

[:Paolo Amadini]

Thanks a lot for the detailed steps to reproduce and screencasts!

We should definitely improve upon this design. The main reason for which we compress the Identity Block, as you can imagine, is that we want to provide more real estate for seeing the URL while editing it. We should find ways to do this but avoid the constant twitching when using the keyboard around the address bar.

The Privacy and Security team I'm part of will not be able to work on this, but I can see this bug tracked as part of our more general Quality efforts.

Justin, is there a tag or meta-bug we could use to track this bug? (I'd ask Gijs but he's away for some time.)

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

(I've also been out over the holidays.)

There isn't a more specific tag, this seems like a fine bug to use itself for the general issue.

Comment 5

[:Paolo Amadini]

(In reply to arni2033 from bug 1300755 comment #42)
> What you are doing is breaking bug 1231025 even more.

We have two main options here. One is to keep the start position of the URL, and have less available space for typing, like you are suggesting. The other is to extend the available space by reclaiming the space used by the security indicators. Even with the first option, we would have to hide or dim the security indicators anyways, since they don't apply to the new URL, but we could keep the space allocated.

The second option is what is currently implemented. Whether this is more or less broken than the other choice can be debated, because having less space to view and type the URL can be considered another type of breakage by different users. In bug 1300755, we are continuing the current behavior without changing it, and making it more consistent in that direction. This doesn't mean we cannot change direction later, of course.

> Apparently, UX team haven't ever read that bug... Please read it.

I'll mark this for triage, because recently our team took more ownership of that area of the user interface. This will get it in front of the right people in a shorter time. Thanks for the reminder!

Comment 6

[Erin Lancaster [:elan]]

Philipp, can you take a look at the Identity Block design and provide guidance and feedback? Thank you.

Comment 7

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

While we might make changes here, it seems unlikely there will be any specific to this bug or the complaints voiced here, and rather more generic about how we treat the url bar, icons in it, the identity block etc., when editing URLs, and when focus is/isn't in the URL bar. As a result, closing this bug and clearing needinfo.